Deadline reports that the Australian government will essentially be giving Disney $22.5 million (via tax breaks and rebates) to shoot in the country. Now, this isn’t exactly news per se. As far back as six or seven months ago, Fincher was location scouting in Australia and it had been widely expected that Aussie officials were going to make it attractive for Disney to bring their movie to the country — and they have. The key holdup for the picture moving ahead remains the same: casting.

There is no greenlight yet for the simple reason that a leading man still hasn’t been found. Brad Pitt waffled back and forth before eventually passing on the 3D movie, and the candidates that Fincher does want for movie (Channing Tatum is apparently among them) are not available until next year to work on ‘Leagues.’ So we’re essentially still at the same point the project has always been at albeit Australia has made firm their commitment to the production, which will certainly make it easier to get rolling, and perhaps light a fire under Fincher and Disney to push this up on their schedules.

So one small step forward for ‘Leagues.’ We’d wager “Gone Girl” could still come first if Fincher decides to wait for his preferred cast, and in case you’re wondering, he won’t be shooting any season two episodes of “House Of Cards.” But movement continues on ‘Leagues’ as it inches towards production.